Sem Break is over...in a few days anyway

I'm going to start my next semester very soon. Next Monday in fact. This time, it will be the long semester until the end of November. So, I got my results for my previous semester, and my C.G.P.A. was 3.43!! Just 0.07 short of 3.5, at least I get to keep my scholarship streak going. Save some money in this dire times....

Anyway, I'll be going for a "Manikayu(Wood Badge)" camp tomorrow. It's the 2nd stage for my scout leadership course. I'm just praying the whole thing would be over and get the cert to recognize myself as a 2 bead Wood Badger. It's a state cert people!!!

My highs and lows about Fifa World Cup

Ahhh..at long last, the 2010 FIFA World Cup has ended, with the crowning of a new World Champion--- SPAIN!!! So, I enjoyed the whole 31 days of Football, but definitely, there's the shortcomings too.

HIGHS!!

1) Tsabalalalalalalalala's.... GOAL!!!


South Africa 1-0 Mexico

Simão | MySpace Video

It's the first goal of the tournament! And besides, just look at the strike. Wonderful!

2) Diego Forlan

He scored 5 five in the tournament. Practically brought Uruguay to where they are, with a helping "hand" from Suarez and all five of those goals were magical.It's a pity his last kick of the tournament, a free kick hit the bar. Otherwise, it would have brought the 3rd placing play-off to extra time.

3) La Furia Roja!! Spain the world champions!

Just look at them, they have Iker Casillas as the man between the sticks. Puyol and Sergio Ramos as defenders. A midfield spoiled with Xavi, Xabi Alonso and Iniesta, even Fabregas and David Silva are on the bench! And the strike force...David Villa!!! And Torr... let's forget about that shall we? We also cant forget the beutiful passing and ball control...a total of 3389 passes. Yeah....3389 passes. That's an average of 484 passes per game.

4) Germany's Blitzkrieg.

In just one World Cup, a total 7 matches of them. The German's destroyed their reputation of just plain technical football with the demolition of Australia,Germany and even England. They showed the way to play beautiful, solid passing football with swift counter-attack. It's akin to seeing the former Nazi armada during World War II..... but this time, the whole world applauded it.

5) Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria

Background: the US had a goal from Clint Dempsey disallowed. It's over 90 mins and 45 seconds, a few more before the whistle ends. Had USA drew, they would be eliminated at the group stage.

Result: Landon Donovan's strike sent not only the National team to the top of the group, leaving England to be trashed by Germany(thought they lost to Ghana in the end). It sent the whole US into esctasy.

6) Shakira's Waka-Waka. =D





Low's.....

1) Italy and France

Well, there isn't nice to say about them right? Italy, the defending champions were not even 5% of the might they used to be.Heck, they drew with New Zealand. All the so called Italian legendary defending were crumbled by the Sloaks(3-2) and the Kiwi's. They were probably scared when the Haka dance were performed.


2) England

I had to reserved one special place for this "team" cause they epitomized the terms of "Crash and Burn". A team, with all the abundant talent with the likes of Gerard, Lampard and Rooney can't even score against Algeria. And Algeria wasn't playing that well. It's not a need to elaborate on Robert Green's blunder, Rooney's lack of form(to say the very least) and the whole team in general. Thank God for the whipping by the Germans. They deserved it. My previous blog post on them elaborates more.

3) Luis Suarez's handball.

It's not Luis Suarez was the total villain. It'll be most footballers reaction to ensure their country won't get eliminated so easily. What happened next was out-of-this world. First, Asamoah Gyan missed his penalty kick, and Luis Suarez was celebrating like they won the World Cup. It didn't help that the players held Suarez up in the air as if he was the hero and Suarez's boasting his "Hand of God" and poor PR skills. A wonderful match nonetheless.

5) The-Goal-That-Never-Was

It's a shame that England did not get that goal, even more so for Frank Lampard, who hasn't got a goal in the WC finals to his name(and judging by his age, not anymore). But this opens up the debate about the goal-line technology. I still have a gut feeling the problem will never be resolved at all.....

Fifa World Cup 2010

England & Japan:How the three lions lost the great war from the start while the blue samurais died valiantly."

This year's World Cup is not short of controversies or excitement. But what is lacking was, in the English and Japan's point of view, the end-result to go with the hype. England, with its frantic media who is asking way too much from such an underachieving side to win the World Cup, while Japan has it's coach who claimed Japan can make it to the finals.

Well, both of them lost in the same round. England got overpowered by the German's blitzkrieg, whilst the army of the rising sun lost out on Penalty shootout because of a misdirected kick to the post.

That's where the similarities end. Let's take a look at England. They virtually had a perfect qualifying campaign and a decent run of friendly result, including a 2-1 win over, well, Japan. In fact, many people believed that the current squad, dubbed the"Golden Generation" under Fabio Capello will finally give England something to cheer and win the World Cup again. The holy grail for national teams.

The Japanese however, did not had such a bright start. Although they did qualify comfortably for the Finals, their recent friendlies results before the World Cup was bad to say the least. Even before the Finals, the national newspapers criticized the Japanese squad to be too dull in their playing styles. And laughed at the prospect of them even surviving the group stage, let alone reach the semi-finals.

But the beautiful thing about football is that what's written on paper, it's usually just a piece of trash. England suffered miserable draws, ranging from the back(think Robert Green's howler), midfield(for God sake's,playing Lampard and Gerard is like asking Alex Ferguson to play twister with Rafael Benitez) and at front( Rooney's goals, or rather the lack of it). Japan on the other hand, scored an upset over Cameroon ( this was my top surprise) and the remarkable win over Denmark. Two spectacular free kicks from Keisuke Honda & Yasuhito Endō sealed the Blue Samurai's ticket to the last 16.

And let's not even talk about England's campaign against the young German warmachine. I watched the highlights, and it was like watching the last part of Saving Private Ryan. Where the US forces(this time England) got killed off one by one by the Germans(yours truly) and the part where England was saved was when the referee blew the final whistle.

You may argue that Lampard's goal would have change the course of the game. There's no denying that Germany was shackled for a while after Matthew Upson's goal, but the problem is the pkayers themselves.It's not like if Lampard's disallowed goal was the end of the world, heck they have 55 minutes to scored THAT goal. And at the very least, don't concede another. The 3 lions(oh wait, cubs) horribly failed in both task.

(England-1, Germany-2, Fifa-a big zero)

Japan faced a resillent Paraguay team. Although it was a dull game, not just because of the scoreline. Japan did play some pretty good passes which Capello would do anything for England to emulate. The thing is, if Japan had gone guns-blazing from the start, they would probably have won. Throughout the World Cup finals, Japan had been playing cautions football, it's a pain to see how they could have gone so close in making chances and finishing good ones if they just take the risk at the appropriate moment. If only Keisuke Honda had a decent striker to work with.

Too bad the coach played safe in this poker game and lost by just a number, or rather a penalty kick from the defender Yuichi Komano, who had worked very hard alongside the other Japanese players.

But what we all know is that Japan will go back to their motherland as national heroes. Fallen, but with "valiant" added to it. England......... it's safe to say that England can never win the World Cup, because they are England. Are they are about to see red over their woeful performances, and I'm not even talking about a battalion of fans wearing the away kit armed with tomatoes.
(Cue: Tomato blast!)

*Oh yeah, Holland defeated Brazil 2-1